How Zero became One
by Zro9breaker
Summary: A mysterious figure named Zero finds himself in Jump City and catches the attention of the Teen Titans. How will things blow over? And why is he in love with Raven?
1. And They Meet

Hey, this is Zro9breaker, and this is my first Fan Fic.

Fuuun stuff...

I don't know if there's supposed to be a disclaimer thing up here, but here it is anyway:

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, except Zero.**

There ya' go. Happy? I hope so.

Anyway, like I said, this is my first Fan Fic, and its rated R for a few god damned good reasons.

I just said 'god damned,' and this story has a lot worse language in it than that. (Kinda like the word 'shit' in the next little paragraph thingy)

When it comes to flying bullets, gore, and death, I tend to be graphic. There is a LOT of blood, shooting, and blowing shit up. Y'know, brains on walls, bullets through eyes, the whole bit. So, if you are a bit squeamish, then I'm not the author for you

Zero and another character get a little... ummm.... cough... intimate.

Secondly, I need to give a semi-brief...uhh... briefing on my character, Zero.

Zero has died twice, has not aged since he died the first time, and now stays at age 18. Zero stands about 6'6', and he HAD 2 bright, shimmering blue eyes, but now his left one is ice blue, and the other is a deep, cold blue. He has extremely dark brown hair, which is always a mess, and a 4" long scar from his forehead to his cheekbone overlapping his ice blue left eye. He has a scarred, split lip, and various scars/ bullet holes from battle all over his body. His left arm and leg are both robotic, and his left arm can sort of transform into a minigun and a MAC (Magnetic Acceleration Cannon). He mainly wears long sleeve shirts, a tattered trench coat with the arms ripped off, military cargo pants, and a combat boot on his right foot. His favorite color is black, so naturally his clothes are black. He wears a pooca shell necklace and a chain around his neck, and wears his two custom-made holster belts, which carry his also custom made .50 cal Desert Eagle and ammo clips.

After all the killing of his friends from past times, he has become cold and heartless, and he doesn't like people getting too close. He has developed a mentality that no one understands what his life has been like, how dark it still is, and that no one ever will. He only has two places of peace left to him: music and drums (kinda like me). Those two things don't reject him and the way he is, so everywhere he drifts, he always carries a pair of sticks, a CD player, and extra music to listen to.

Over time, the injuries he has sustained, and all the war he has seen, taught him to suppress, even override all types of emotion that could get him killed in battle. Feelings like fear, pain, anxiety, nervousness, etc; have been blocked. He has cancelled out all of them, becoming a cold, killing machine. But hate and love cannot be overridden, as he will soon find out.

If you want Zero's full Bio, let me know somehow, and I'll get it to you somehow. It really goes into detail about the events of his life, and it explains a lot. So you'll probably want it.

This is the first in a series of chapters yet to come. All characters are in their late teens (i.e. 17, 18, 19) In this beginning, Zero meets the Titans; Raven especially, sort of the hard way. Read and find out... (And don't forget to post review please!)

**CHAPTER 1- And they meet... **

Zero walked through the forest, tired, battered, and... well... just tired as fuck.

He hoped he would find some sort of civilization soon. He was low on ammo, food, and his robotic parts were getting rusty

"Fuck," he mumbled as he looked up at the sky. He wanted to sit and rest somewhere. His two rifles, large sword, and customized D. Eagle were getting heavy, but he feared if he sat down, he might not get back up. So he trudged on through the wilderness.

Finally, he came to an opening in the forest. The trees opened up to a blue sky and a city skyline. The harbor below him went out to his left into the ocean, and a bridge stretched off to his right.

A sense of relief came over him. He needed new fusion cells for his MAC (Magnetic Acceleration Cannon) and his minigun, some .50 cal bullets for his customized Desert Eagle, and some cleaning supplies for all of it. He didn't do 'pretty.' He just cleaned his guns for efficiency. But most importantly, he would be able to eat now.

He crossed the large bridge, and walked into the city.

It was a strange place in this city. There was a weird assortment of people walking about, and some of them seemed to have powers that they would use regularly. He was slightly amazed, and he thought about these people, and thought about how no one normal ever understood his life. But these people were sure as fuck not normal, and maybe here, just maybe, he would find someone who understood the darkness...

He had purchased his ammunition, gotten his mechanized parts back up to spec, was even able to find fusion cells for his MAC, and now sat at a café in the city next to the street. A short railing surrounded it, and tall buildings rose up all around him. His table was street side so he had a better view down the sidewalk. He faced west up the street, and the sun was setting over the skyscrapers.

He leaned over the table slightly, resting his body on his left elbow, and picked up his drink. He paused for a moment, looking up the street he was facing. He was in civilization now. In a civilization that had never seen or heard of him before, no less. He was relieved once again that he wouldn't have bounty hunters on his back, and he didn't have to look over his shoulder all the time.

He took a drink.

No later had he swallowed, a large explosion blew open the ground floor wall of a building east of his position. Zero dropped his glass, and stood up. He clenched his fists.

Maybe he was wrong about looking over his shoulder.

He stood up straight to the full 6' 6" of himself, and turned to observe what had happened. An extremely large body had plowed through the building, and started running down the street toward Zero. Zero stood his ground, and the beast ran past him. It was carrying a bag of something, and wielded a VERY large firearm. Then a group of five teens ran and flew through the wreckage, and gave chase to the thing.

Zero narrowed his eyes at the teens. Were they serious in chasing this guy? They were all pretty young. One of the five was a short guy with spiky hair, and he wore a mask over his eyes. He wore a red shirt with green sleeves, along with green pants and gloves, and a cape trailed along behind him. The 8 foot tall behemoth behind him was mostly mechanical, and had a bum left eye like Zero's. Then there was a green jaguar thing that ran with them. The two females were the only ones flying. One was tall and slender with flaming green eyes (no really, they were on fire). She wore high boots, a skirt and a small top, which showed off her midriff. All of her clothes were blue, her hair was a bright red, and she held green energy in her hands as she flew.

The girl below her was different somehow. She showed no effort of flying, but was more levitating than anything. She glided along the pavement, and her black cloak flew back showing her body. She was somewhat short, and she wore all black. Her legs showed from the hips down, and she wore a belt of some kind around her waist. Her hood covered her face, but Zero could see a set of beautiful purple eyes. She was gothic; dark like him.

Zero almost was attracted to her, but he checked the motion. Love would be his downfall, and it had no place in his life.

He watched the beast run down the street passed him, and just as the group of 5 teens were approaching his position, the gothic girl used her power of telekinesis to pick up a car and hurl it at the thing. The vehicle struck it dead in the back of the head, blowing up on impact, but the beast stopped and turned around.

It scowled at the girl, and yelled, "Eat this you little shit!" It fired a shot. The projectile was massive; at least a 70mm round. Zero widened his eyes at it as it flew past him toward her. 'If that hits, she's gone,' he thought. But wasting time wasn't going to help, so he made up his mind. "I've seen too many good people die in my life, and I'm not going to allow it to happen again!"

He planted his right foot on the railing, and hurled himself out toward her.

From Raven's POV now...

Raven had noticed him. He was tall, with robotic left appendages. He had a scar over his left eye, and his hair was black; or was it dark brown? The thing that got her was his eyes. His right eye was a deep shimmering blue, which filled her with warmth and comfort, but his left eye was a different story. It was ice blue, and it also shimmered, but in a cold, heartless way. Both were fixed on her, and she was caught off guard by the way he looked at her.

She felt a certain attraction to him, but she had a job to do: stop this beast and take back the stolen goods. So she used her telekinetic powers to pick up a car and rocket it toward the monster.

The car impacted with great force but the beast still managed to turn around, yell something, and fire its gun at her. She didn't have enough reaction time to get out of the way. The bullet was too fast; she was going to die.

Or was she?

Heh, don't ya' just love cliffhangers?

Well review and tell me how I did. Was it good, bad, or just plain horrible? You tell me. And hey, if I did reasonably well, I'll post the next one.


	2. Two Bullets Spent

**CHAPTER 2- Two bullets spent**

Another disclaimer? Ok...

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Teen Titans, except Zero.**

Starting from where I left off...

Zero watched the bullet come closer, and so did she. He calculated the distance and time from impact of the bullet. 'Yeah,' he thought grimly. 'This is going to be rough.'

Zero was mid air, arms outstretched, trying to save her from it, but it was going to be close. Zero finally made contact with Raven after what seemed like an eternity, and he grabbed her, rapping his arms around her body, bringing her in close so he could rotate easily onto his back to meet the impact of the ground.

But he felt strange inside, and he tried his hardest to suppress the feeling, but it would not be silenced.

She was surprised when he grabbed her. She first clenched her eyes shut, ready for the end, but then found a comfort in his grasp. She looked up at his eyes, and he looked back. She was embarrassed a little, but she continued to stare into his gaze. She smiled a small smile.

'SHIT! DAMN! FUCK!' Zero's mind screamed. 'Why won't it go away?!' He gazed into Raven's eyes and was struck with that god damned felling again. It made him soft, and he hated being soft, because it made him vulnerable.

This whole time the bullet closed in, and Zero, being sidetracked by that god damned feeling, forgot to rotate just right and was hit in his left side as he and Raven fell to the ground. He winced, but cancelled out the pain. Blood sprayed out of the exit wound, soaking his shirt and dampening Raven's. She realized the bullet had hit him, and was filled with a sense of desperation to help him.

They hit the ground with bone shattering force, smashing the pavement. They lied side to side facing each other. Zero stood up, and Raven looked at him from the ground.

Yeah, he was tall all right.

The pavement had scraped up his right arm, his ribs partially broken or bruised or both, and his trench coat had been ripped off by the landing, leaving the long-sleeve shirt to soak up the blood that was still rushing out of the bullet wound in his side.

He looked down at her to make sure she was not injured; no, just covered in his blood, so he drew his .50 cal. custom D. Eagle, turned the safety off, and walked to the middle of the street. The monster bellowed laughter through the street. Like Zero was going to take him out...

Zero was disgusted by the laughter. He scowled, raised his gun with his right arm, narrowed his eyes, (his left one seeming to discharge a light blue flame...), and squeezed the trigger. The blast echoed through the street, and the silence that fallowed was astounding. The beast ceased laughing to realize he had been hit smack in the forehead.

Zero waited for the monster to fall, and for the spent brass to hit the ground. Then he holstered his weapon. He walked back over to Raven, and held out his hand to help her up.

She was amazed. He had just taken that freak with a serious wound in his side, a gashed up right arm, broken ribs (was there one sticking through his skin?) and only spent one bullet. She stared in amazement and held up her hand to grab his, but just as their hands were about to touch, the beast stood back up, roared, and another 70mm round issued from the beast's weapon.

Zero was caught off guard, and didn't have time to dodge it. This round was explosive too, as it blew when it met Zero. Raven turned her head away and held her arm up to her head block any shrapnel. Then she looked back to where Zero had been standing. He was gone. The beast screeched a victory cry.

Raven's heart shattered. For some reason, she felt grief for him. But she had barely even met him, so why did she feel this way? She turned her head, shut her eyes, and tears began to run down her face. A man hole cover nearby rose a meter off the ground and shot into an office building, sticking in the wall.

A nearby pile of rubble started to crumble away, and Zero struggle to stand. "I'm not dead yet, bastard." He mumbled. Raven's head darted to look, and there he was. She sighed and smiled; he was ok. The manhole cover shot back across the street making a nearby minivan a convertable.

Zero stood up covered in debris and blood, and armed his MAC. He outstretched his left arm, and it transformed itself into a large chamber with a short barrel stretching out of the end, and two semi-long exhaust ports and the opposite end. A cord snaked out of the chamber and attached itself to Zero's shoulder. It immediately started glowing blue, fallowed closely by the chamber itself, and then the inside of the barrel. The large round in the chamber rotated madly and was flung forward on magnetic energy. Exhaust forced its way out of the ports, and the 10cm slug looked like white lightning streaking toward very spot where the .50cal round had penetrated. The projectile met its target, and the beast's head exploded, splattering brains and blood on the street. It slumped to pavement in a heap.

It died before it touched the ground.

Zero disarmed the MAC, walked back over to Raven, and again held out his hand to her like nothing had ever happened. She stared at him in awe as he took her hand. 'This guy can't be human,' she thought.

Blood loss takes its toll though. Zero winced once, and fell forward in her lap, completely unconscious.

'Maybe I'm wrong...' she corrected herself

Not exactly a cliffhanger, but it leaves you in thought.

Tell me how I did, and I'll put up the next one when I'm done with it. And again, if you need/want Zero's full Bio, just let me know, and I'll send it to you.


	3. The Titans' Tower

CHAPTER 3- The tower, the Titans 

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Teen Titans (but if I did, the show would be even more kick ass), except for Zero**

Continuing on from Ch 2...

Raven sat there with Zero in her lap, wondering what to do. He was losing a lot of blood, but he was too heavy to pick up.

"Um, a little help?" she yelled

Cyborg was the first to the scene, but he took it a little differently than what it actually was.

"What the...?!" he yelled. He ran over, yanked Zero up off of Raven, and leveled his arm cannon to Zero's face. "This guy tryin' to pull somethin' on you? I'll blow his filthy head off his shoulders if he is!" Cyborg yelled.

"No! No! No!" Raven exclaimed as she jumped up. "He just saved my life!"

Cyborg looked at her funny. "This guy? He don't look like no hero to me," he said quietly as he lowered his weapon, examining Zero's limp body.

"Hero or not, we need to get him medical attention; he's got a bullet hole in his side and its leaking. He passed out from blood loss, and just fell on me."

"Oh," Cyborg said. "OOHHH," he said again as he spotted the wound. "Fuck man!" He laid Zero on the ground, and quickly gave out orders to his new nurse. "Hurry and pull up his shirt; I'll ready a bio-foam to put in the wound so it'll stop the blood loss."

Raven sat on her knees and began to roll up the blood soaked shirt. She gasped, and backed away from Zero. "Oh my god..."

The skin below the shirt was a massacre. Scars, bullet marks, and various protrusions of electrical wiring riddled Zero torso. Raven was shocked as how many battle scars he had endured. And this bullet would just leave another one. Some of his ribs were broken from taken the force of the landing earlier, and they were protruding out at odd angles.

"C'mon Raven! What's the hold up?!" Cyborg demanded. She snapped back to her senses and rolled up the rest of the shirt, revealing nasty scars from blades, cuts and scrapes from shrapnel, and various sized bullet marks. She withheld her gag reflex and held the shirt up as Cyborg applied the bio-foam. The foam expanded on contact, filling the wound and stopping blood loss. The foam would eventually be absorbed by the flesh and dissolved.

"He's good for now," Cyborg started. "We need to rap it up and we'll take him back to the tower to rest. Hospitals don't take in partially robotic patients."

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Raven asked desperately.

"The foam will stop the bleeding, and it'll get out of the way when the wound closes up. So, yes, he'll be fine."

Raven sighed with relief.

Zero was lying on the couch in the living room of the tower when he awoke. He lay on his back, with his hand on his torso. He sat there a moment, the slowly opened his eyes.

The realization of being in a strange place hit him, the battle reflexes kicked in, and he jumped off the couch, reaching for his D. Eagle. It wasn't there. He stared in disbelief where the gun was supposed to be in the holster, realized he was unarmed, and dove for cover. He landed and rolled behind the counter of a small kitchen, sitting himself on the balls of his feet. Then his side gave way to a sharp pain, and he doubled over. He slammed one knee to the ground for stability, and he clutched his side. He overrode the pain with effort, surveyed the wound which issued the pain, and seeing that it was sterilized and bandaged, he slowly lifted himself up to survey the room. "I gotta cut back on the acrobatic shit," he mumbled as he rose above the counter.

It was dark, obviously sometime during the night, and he manually adjusted his eyes to the darkness. It was a square room, with the wall to his right being completely made of windows. The windows faced out into the harbor and toward the city. In front of the windows was a massive plasma screen T.V., a coffee table, and the large couch he was just laying on. There was a small pair of steps up to the level he was currently at. To his immediate right was a table with six chairs, and a potted plant. The kitchen in which he stood had an 'L' shaped island in the middle, a small fridge in the corner to his left, and a sink filled to the brim with dirty dishes. The corner of the room in front of him, slightly to his left had a small coffee table and two large chairs. The other corner was empty. Each of the non-window walls had a doorway in the center of them, making for entrances from all directions.

'If I get ambushed in here,' he thought. 'I'm gonna get fucked up.'

He looked around for his belongings, and spotting them, grabbed his gun, a few spare clips, and set of to search around a bit.

He crept out of the living room, firearm aimed forward in his outstretched hand, and wandered around in the halls for what seemed like forever. His travels eventually led him to the roof, where a rising sun greeted him. He walked to the ledge of the roof. He looked down, and found that he was standing on the top of the ominous 'T' he had seen earlier in the harbor.

He lowered his gun and looked out over the horizon. It was a beautiful view. He holstered his firearm, put his hands in his pockets, and just stood looking at the sunrise before a female voice sounded behind him.

"You shouldn't be up yet. You're going to hurt yourself by aggravating that wound." The voice warned.

He was startled and turned a quick 180. He spotted his visitor. It was the girl from before. She was leaning against the door he had just come out of, with her arms and legs crossed. She wore her outfit from before too, just minus the cloak.

Zero didn't know what to do. His only safe exit was blocked, he wasn't going to shoot her; she posed no serious threat, so he decided to go with conversation.

"I've had worse," he said.

She smiled a small smile. She stood up straight and walked toward him. That god damned fucking feeling from before Zero inside grew at an astounding rate. He considered jumping off the roof, but checked the thought.

She approached the wall that ringed the roof, and looked out over the horizon. Zero stared at her. He also considered bashing himself over the head with the butt of his available weapon, but also checked that thought.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She asked.

He was taken aback. That was an odd question...

"Who are you?" he asked.

She turned and faced him, looking directly into his eyes. "You saved me, remember?"

"I mean your name."

"Raven," she said briefly.

"Raven..." he started. "That's an interesting name."

"And may I ask _your_ name?" she inquired.

He paused, then said, "They call me Zero."

"That's also an interesting name," she said with slight laughter. "How did you get that name?"

"Long story," he said looking away. Bad memories of his friends flooded back to him, and he fought them back.

Raven felt the memories flow though Zero's mind. "Sorry. I didn't know."

"It's fine. Nobody ever does," he said bluntly.

Raven tried to remain on his good side, so she changed the subject. "Breakfast is probably being made. You want to join us?"

"Us?" he said, looking back at her.

"Oh that's right! You haven't met any of us have you?"

"Us?" he repeated.

"Follow me. I'll show you what I'm talking about."

Raven turned back toward the door. He watched her go, then looked back at the sunrise. He thought about the situation he was in, and decided to follow her. What else was he to do? If anything he could stay here until he healed up, then he could split. Hey, free food and sleep, right?

Well, maybe, but you won't know till next chapter now will you?? Heh. No, no, I wouldn't leave you guys hanging like that. I'll get the next one up if you guys like this so far.


	4. How Zero Became One

CHAPTER 4- How ZERO became ONE 

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Teen Titans, except Zero. **

Upon entering the living room, he spotted the four other teens that had attempted to stop the beast from before. The short one with the spiked hair, the 8-foot tall cyborg, and the tall girl with the bright red hair were sitting at the table in the corner. A short green guy was cooking breakfast, and Raven joined him in the kitchen to make tea.

When his presence became known in the room, everyone stared at Zero in silence. He felt their eyes goring into him, but he remained emotionless. Raven suddenly broke the silence. It made Zero jump a little.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet Zero, the man who saved me yesterday," she said. "Zero," she said turning to him. "I'd like you to meet Robin," she pointed to the short one with the spiked hair. "Starfire," she pointed to the girl with bright red hair sitting next to the short one with spiked hair. "Cyborg."

"Yo," the 8-foot cyborg said, smiling slightly.

"And Beast Boy. We call him BB." She gestured toward the small green guy cooking breakfast.

"Hope you like Tofu eggs!" Shouted Beast Boy over the cooking noise. Zero's stomach gave a sudden lurch; he hadn't eaten in at least two days.

"Any food would be great," Zero said, still keeping a straight face.

"We set an extra seat for you over by Cyborg," Raven said. "Go on in and sit down. Make yourself at home."

'I have no home, nor do I remember what it felt like to have one,' he thought miserably to himself.

He sat down next to Cyborg, and a thick silence set over the room. No one spoke through breakfast, or when everyone was cleaning up. Zero did his part peacefully, grabbed a soda, and quietly left for the roof again.

"What do I do?" he said to himself. "I have nowhere left to go, but I am injured. I sure as hell would stir up a commotion at the hospital, especially since I'm technically dead. I can't get a job to at least rent an apartment. Fuck."

He made his way to the roof, and stood against the wall. He watched as people went about their normal business, and watched various boats come and go. He sat down with his back against the wall, finished his soda and examined the can. He threw it up in the air, drew his gun, and unloaded the clip into it. It fell with eight perfect holes in the sides.

"This is my only real talent." He slammed another clip into the firearm and holstered it. "Killing." He hung his head and stared at the ground and spent shell casing.

"No, your talent is you astounding accuracy," a male voice said. Zero looked up to see Robin walking toward him.

"What?" Zero said blankly as he stood up.

"Your accuracy. That is your real talent."

Zero stared silently at him.

"That was very impressive, what you did yesterday. You took out that monster without any help from us, and you only spent two bullets."

"That thing was kind of hard to miss."

"But you hit it in exactly the same spot both times. You even saved Raven's life, almost at the expense of yours. That almost never happens. She usually is supposed to save the bystander's life. We really owe you one for that."

"I don't want to get in the way," Zero said quietly. "I'll just leave."

He walked toward the door, but Robin stopped him. "Where will you go?" he asked. Zero remained silent.

"What I'm trying to get at is that we would like to have you on our team."

"I work as a mercenary. I travel, take odd jobs, and travel some more. I don't think I'll be very reachable."

"On the contrary. Every team member here has his or her own living quarters any way they would have it. You would be no exception."

"I would stay here permanently?"

"Yes. If you accept this offer, you will receive this," he held out a circle-shaped communicator, with a yellow 'T' in the very center. "And you will receive a room of your own, with a bed, computer, optional stereo, closet and bathroom, all in any shape, form, and color of your choosing."

Zero turned around and thought hard. This would be his resting place, his dwelling, his home. He made up his mind.

"It all sounds good," he said turning around with a slight smirk on his face. "But can I get a shooting range in the room?"

"That's a stretch," Robin said laughing. "But I'll make it happen. Welcome to the Team!"

So there ya go. He's a Titan now, and I really have no idea of what to do for the next chapter. !#$

Oh well, I'll come up with something.

So, how am I doing so far? Let me know, and I'll get on to writing chapter 5.


	5. He Sleeps Peacefully In Hell

**CHAPTER 5: He sleeps peacefully in Hell**

I'm sorta building this chapter around one basic idea, so if things go wrong... well... bare with me.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Teen Titans, except Zero.**

Raven couldn't sleep that night. She thought about the new guy Zero, and how became a Titan. She ran the memory through her head again and again to fully comprehend what had happened. When she finally got the picture of how things went down, and tried to go to sleep, he popped into her mind again. She couldn't stop thinking about him. Maybe it was because his room was right next door... No, that couldn't be it. Maybe it was something that happened during the day. She ran that through her head as well...

"So, Zero," Robin said. "How do you want all this laid out?"

Zero thought about his room, and how to incorporate a firing range into it. Robin did say that he could have it anyway he wanted it, so why not a decently sized firing range? They had already cleared space for a long room, running the length of the top of the tower; it was just a matter of where to put everything.

"I think I'll handle this part," Zero said, observing the length and width of the room.

"Okay, whatever you say. Just yell if you need help."

"Sure."

There were many various boxes behind him as he stood in the doorway looking into his room. They consisted of a bed frame, a mattress, computer, stereo, desk, end table, and the box he bought himself contained a drum kit. He'd have to make it al fit so he went to work. But just as he started unpacking a box, Raven approached him.

Raven sensed something different about him though. When she got within a few yards of him, she started hearing noise. She tried to pinpoint the location, only to find it was... coming from Zero's head? She listened harder to find that the noise had a rhythmical beat to it. Was someone playing loud music? No, everyone was out today except Robin, Zero, and herself. Robin was probably training like his typical self, and she and Zero were right there in the same hallway. So what was that noise? Was she hearing Zero's thoughts? Only if Zero's thoughts were a bunch of static and drums, but she would have to focus on reading his thought to hear them. Strange...

"So, you moving in?" She asked.

(I had the biggest urge to put a 'here's your sign' joke right after that, but I decided against it. It would've been funny as fuck, but its not Zero's style.)

"Seems so." He said blankly as he picked up a box and set it inside.

"And I, uh, noticed its right next to mine?"

Zero came back out of the room and looked around the corner. Raven's room was right there next to his.

"I'll get muffling for the walls."

"Why?" She asked tilting her head slightly.

"I own three firearms and drums."

"Oh."

He carried a few more boxes in, and she kept trying to decipher the noise. She could make out a faint type of rhythm, but nothing else. She tried to get a conversation going with him.

"So, what did you do before you came here?" She asked

"I worked as a mercenary a few years back." He said flatly. She noticed a slight increase in the volume of the noise, but now it wasn't noise, it was a song. Music being broadcasted from his head?

"What was your biggest job as a mercenary?" she asked, still paying much attention the music.

The memories flooded back of the island, the scientist, his friend... "I don't walk to talk about it," he said hotly, turning away to pick up another box.

Suddenly the music's volume went ballistic. Heavy drums and shrieking guitar solos lashed at her mind, and she winced at the shear intensity of it all. She could not identify the song or artist, but she understood clearly what singer had yelled. All the music had gone silent, and the singer yelled out, "I WAS BORN FOR DYING!"

She looked at Zero at that very moment. He gave a dark smile as he picked up another box. Was there some connection between what the singer said and the smile? She had no idea, but her head throbbed from listening into the song in Zero's head. She went back to her room to clear her head.

That's what kept her awake that night. That music. What did it mean? Why the hell did it come out of Zero's mind? And why did it escalate when she touched upon his biggest job as mercenary?

She was confused by so many things, that she decided to get an inside look on things...

She quietly crept from her room to Zero's, and slid the door open slowly. She took a look at his room. 'You can learn a lot about people from their room décor,' she thought. When she opened the door, the room stretched of to her distant left, the wall on the right being flush with the doorway. She took a step in, closed the door, and let her eyes adjust. The living part of the room was simple enough. The other stretch of the room to her left was a three lane firing range. The living section was a 20-foot square section with jet-black carpeting. Over in the far right hand corner sat his drums, which he had already set up, and to the left of that was his dresser, which the stereo sat upon. In the middle of the right wall sat Zero's bed, which he of course was dead asleep on (or so it seemed...). Closest to her was his desk, which housed his computer. The walls were littered with different posters of WWII planes, a picture of him and a famous drummer with the adjacent autograph, and cars of different variety. One section of pictures caught her attention. They were pictures of relatives, his old drum line from high school and pictures of his old friends. But these pictures were all older than he seemed to be. They were all dated back in the 1940's, so they had to be at least 60 years old. He was only 18 though...

She looked at Zero. He was sleeping very peacefully for a person who seems to have been through hell. He had buried the left side of his face in his pillow, hiding his scar, but he was now wearing short sleeves, which revealed a grim sight. Her eyes widened at the sight of his right arm hanging over the side of the bed. It was unbelievably scarred. Large chunks of flesh were cut out from bullet wounds, and the scrapes from yesterday still remained. She observed this contrast between his scarred body and the way he slept. He slept like he was carefree and happy, but his scarring told a story of blood, misery, and pain. She noted this and went back to surveying the room. She found his CD player lying on the desk.

'Music. Maybe the song from before.' She thought. 'I'll give it a shot.'

She sat down at the desk and opened the CD player. The disk inside was of Metallica: Master of Puppets. She lifted an eyebrow to the name and album title, but then spotted the lyrics, so she started reading. Then the temptation became too strong, and she put on his headphones and started the music. She listened to many guitar solos, fast tempo, and raspy singing. Then came a song that caught her attention. This song told a tale of a young guy going off to fight a war, the sites he saw at war, and how he felt in battle. She looked at the lyric sheet. "Disposable Heroes" was the song title. She listened hard to the lyrics as she read them on the sheet. Then she realized it was the song.

She read over the lyrics once more.

When the song ended she stopped the CD player and hastily took off the headphones. She sadly remembered those words: I was born for dying. She looked at Zero and felt sorry for him. His life was probably a living hell, with all the slaughter he experienced as mercenary...

'Wait,' she thought. 'He said he was a mercenary a few years back. If he's 18 now, that would make him at least 15 back then, but that can't be right...'

Suddenly the pictures she saw earlier came back to her. 'There dates were set in the forties,' she thought fiercely. 'If he has friends in the forties... no that's impossible. But WWII was in the forties. This song seemed to be about war, and he always smiled when he heard those lyrics...'

"Oh my God," she said in the darkness. "Are you even alive?"

Zero shifted slightly.

Raven walked over to him. She felt grief for him deep down inside. These feeling usually forbidden welled inside of her. She went to stroke is hair to see if it would maybe comfort him somehow, but when her finger touched his head, he sprang alive. In one quick motion, Zero grabbed her wrist with his left hand, reached over the right side of the bed producing a 92FS 9mm handgun, turned the safety off, and aimed it right in between her eyes. His left eye glowed in the night.

Raven gasped, and clenched her eyes shut, but he didn't fire. He merely let go of her wrist, turned the safety back on, put the 92FS back, and then rolled over to his other side and fell back asleep.

Raven staggered backwards and fell into the computer chair. She their and sifted through her thoughts. So many things had just happened, and they were all flooding her mind in a violent cyclone. She wore herself out trying to understand it all, and she fell asleep in the chair.

The next morning, she awoke very early. Remembering she was in Zero's room, she scrambled to get back to hers. But when she attempted to stand, she felt heavier somehow. She looked down to find the comforter off of Zero's bed wrapped around her. She turned and stared at him. She put the blanket back on Zero and slowly walked out of the door. Just as she was about to leave, she looked back over her shoulder at him.

Maybe there was more to this blood stained lone wolf than met the eye.

Well, that was pretty long (to me at least, I've been typing for 3 hours). And NOW I have no Idea of what to do for the next chapter. Seriously. I have got no godly idea. Well, post some reviews and comments and stuff, and I'll get on to the next one...


	6. Knowledge of the Twice Dead Man

Sorry about the long update time. School is being a bitch, and marching in drum line takes up my weekends. So, I'll keep writing, but you'll just have to be very patient. VERY patient... sorry.

CHAPTER 6: Knowledge of the Twice Dead Man

Kind of a weird title, but it works. Raven sort of forces information from Zero about himself. Oh, and your going to need the Bio here. Seriously. Before you read, get the Bio from me. Just E-mail me (e-mail adress is under my profile, I think), or post a review and say something like, "Dude, I need the bio."

**DISCLAIMER:** **I don't own the Teen Titans, except Zero.**

Zero awoke that morning, and turned to see if Raven had left. She was no longer in the chair, and the thick blanket was on his bed, so he made the conclusion.

He allowed himself a subtle laugh. He didn't understand people, and she just added to mix somehow. She had snuck into his room last night and tried to touch him.

Why? And why didn't he pull the trigger when he had the chaingun to her face? Maybe it was that feeling inside...

"No." He put the situation into a more logical perspective. "I need a place to stay and hideout. If I didn't, she would've gotten a discount lobotomy. That's it."

Something inside him told him to stop lying.

He got out of bed and surveyed his quarters. Nothing was out of place except his CD player.

"As long as the music inside isn't gone," he groaned. He walked over and opened it up. The music was still inside, and he let out a breath he held unconsciously.

He went to the shooting range across the room, picked up his M82A1 .50 cal rifle, aimed, and...

Raven lay in her bed half asleep, still wondering about this new guy. He was so mysterious, with the old pictures of his high school friends from the forties, and how he looked no older than 18.

A small explosion erupted from Zero's room. Raven literally jumped out of bed.

She was sure s hell awake now.

Raven gathered her obscured senses, and ran to Zero's room. Just as the door opened...

The door slid opened as he squeezed the trigger. The portable cannon erupted and a .50 slug shot forward, hitting the target on the opposite wall. If they hadn't lined the wall with that half-meter thick titanium, the slug would've kept going out into the city.

Zero half expected it to be Raven at the door again, and he knew she wasn't threat to him, so he lowered the rifle and turned around. The brass casing spun to a halt at his feet.

She stood in the doorway, taking in heavy breaths.

"Crap, forgot the muffling," he mumbled.

"Yeah," she gasped. "No shit."

He engaged the safety and set the rifle down.

"Sit down. You're going to pass out by breathing so fast and heavy," he said medically, still keeping his voice flat and emotionless. He learned how to fight off that feeling, but it still bugged the hell out of him.

She sat on his bed and hunched over catching her breath. "Never. Do. That. Ever. Again."

"Muffling is on my to-do list." He walked over to the computer chair and sat facing her. He finally forced himself to say it. "Sorry."

They sat in silence, Raven still hunched over, and Zero sort of staring off to the side. Raven finally spoke up. "Well, as long as we're here," she said looking up. "Why don't we get acquainted?"

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Not likely."

"Look at it this way," She started, sitting up. "If I know you better, I can avoid the painful topics of conversation."

"Pain lets me know I'm still here." He mumbled.

She scowled at him. "Look, I'd just like to know how you are the way you are. Is it that difficult?"

"Yes." He walked over to the window and looked out.

"Fine," she said, her eyes beginning to grow dark. "I tried asking nice."

Suddenly, he was engulfed in dark energy, and flung into a wall, where he was pinned. "What the-?!" he said, trying to break free. Then he spotted Raven's eyes glowing with darkness. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I told you, I know so little about you, and I'd like to get to know you better. Well, now you're not going anywhere. So tell me about yourself."

'Fuck, she's got me trapped. But maybe...' He armed his MAC, and a depleted uranium slug slid into the chamber. 'No, that'll kill us both... FUCK.'

"Look," He said, lowering his head. "I prefer not to relive my life. Or tell you how I got this way. It opens up hell in my head."

"Your life has been a dark one. I can tell. I understand that, because mine is this way also."

The realization struck him. No one had ever understood him, and now, that person that would was standing before him. But if they found they had similarity, and they became friends, she might leave him somehow. All of his friends were dead; killed in combat, and he had watched them die. He couldn't bear to have that happen again. But she was different. Not only was she dark, and not only did she understand, she could save herself if the time came. She had powers to defend herself, he wouldn't have to bare the strain of losing her, and if she were unable, he would save her, at the price of his own life if necessary.

"Alright." He said, staring at the ground. "I'll talk."

She gave a slight smile and slid him to the floor. He landed feet first, and then slumped to the floor. He rested his arms on his knees and continued staring at the carpet. She walked over to him and sat on his right. She sat legs crossed, hands folded in her lap.

"My life..." he said remembering. "My life has been fucked since June 6, 1944."

The pieces of her puzzle suddenly fit. The pictures' dates, his laughing at Disposable Heroes, the mercenary job... he _was _already dead.

He told her the entire stretch of his life. His friend's deaths, the scar on his eye, his arm and leg; everything. She sat in awe and listened, and began to feel extreme sympathy for the twice-dead man. Zero relived every detail in horror as the memories flooded back into view and haunted him once more.

His life story came to a halt, and they sat in silence for some time. He finally spoke up, saying, "Whenever I told people this, they didn't grasp the dark side of it, and usually they would hunt me down. Eventually, I had to start defending myself. So, I used this and this." He drew his D. Eagle, and raised his left arm. "I had to kill or be killed. But that got a bounty on my head, and now I run from place to place, always looking over my shoulder."

"That's horrible," Raven started, looking at him. "But like I said, my life is also dark like yours. I'm-"

"-Dark like me," he interrupted. They both looked at each other. A silence sat in again. They stared at each other, and the feeling in Zero spike, and a light bulb in the room exploded. "I told my life," he said quickly. "You tell yours."

"Alright. I'll tell," she said.

She told him everything as well. All the stomach turning details of her life came out, and it amazed Zero how incredibly dark it was. It came to match his life's darkness, and almost surpassed it.

"And that's how it all went," she finished. He sat in awe. He never thought anyone could be as dark as him, never as tormented, but she shattered that. She would be the one who understood him. She would be the one.

"It kinda brings up that statement from earlier," she said.

"Dark like me. Yeah." He looked at her and she looked back. His cold blue eyes stared into her warm purple eyes. That feeling spiked again inside Zero, and a .50cal round exploded, firing into the ceiling.

"Whoa!" Zero said jumping up, spotting the hole in the roof. He let himself sigh mentally as the feeling subsided. She cursed at herself for letting her powers go again.

She looked up at him from the ground. He amazed her. His height was astounding; at least six and a half feet tall. He wasn't that muscular; his body was built for speed it seemed. His right arm was scarred beyond belief, with large chunks missing from the muscle, probably from bullets and shrapnel. His eyes were cold and deep, and they were two different shades of blue. His left appendages were both robotic, his leg from the knee down, and his arm from the shoulder. He was the epitome of the living dead, having died twice and still standing. He was...

"...perfect..." Raven whispered to herself.

"What?" Zero said, turning around.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

Zero grunted and went back to the hole in the roof. "Fuck," he grumbled. "I'm gonna have to fix that. And get the muffling up. Damn it, forgot about that."

She laughed a small laugh, and stood up. She walked over to him just as he was turning to go get muffling and plywood.

"Wha-?" he said as Raven pressed her head to his chest. He stared lazily forward raising an eyebrow. "What in hell are you doing?" he asked flatly.

Raven closed her eyes and felt the warmth through his shirt. She listened inside of him. She heard his heart beating softly under the slight hum of electric parts. "Listening."

"My heartbeat is not a special one."

"I'm just making sure." She looked up into his eyes, then turned and left.

When she was out the door, and the door sealed shut, Zero pondered to himself, 'Making sure of what??'

He picked up his D. Eagle. 'I don't understand people, even if they understand me.' He aimed downrange where he stood and pulled the trigger.

A miniature explosion issued from Zero's room as Raven walked down the hall. She jumped, and looking over her shoulder at his door, mumbled, "I'm going to have a hard time getting use to that."


	7. Getting to know the number Zero

CHAPTER 7: Getting to know the number Zero… 

I need another disclaimer here:

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Teen Titans, or Halo 2, but I do own Zero.**

Well, it's been a long time since you guys have seen my ass around here, huh? Well, spring break came, and now I can stay up till four writing.

Picking up right where I left off…

The first part of the day that followed was rather uneventful. Zero stayed to his room, fixing the, as he put it, "un-fucking-necessary" hole in the ceiling, and putting up the "God damned muffling."

The other guys stuck to the living room, playing games, and Starfire stayed to watch. Well, not really, just to be around the guys. Well, Robin anyway.

Raven just wandered between her room and Zero's, pretending not to check out his progress, or his scarred body.

As he hefted the last piece of muffling into place and hammering it down with a view nails, he sighed; his task was done. "Now to test this stuff," he said to himself with a grim smirk on his face.

His gaze wandered to his drums. 8 maple drums, composed of 2 bass drums, 1 snare, and 5 toms, and 8 cymbals on top of that gave him goose bumps. He suppressed the feeling, though it was rather pointless.

He began to close his door, but as he did Raven walked by.

"I see you've got it all up," she said to him.

"Finally," he groaned. "Mother fuckers were the same amount of fun to put up as it is getting teeth pulled."

"That bad, huh?"

He looked at her harshly. Than he glanced at his gashed up right hand. "Yes. Yes they were."

"I'm guessing you were about to test the muffling."

"I'm planning to."

"If its not going to involve gunshots, can I watch?"

"If you want," he said, opening his door.

She sat on his bed getting a daytime view of his room as he took up the throne (or drumming seat, to those not literate to drums). He grabbed sticks and earplugs out of a box.

He offered two plugs to Raven. "You're gonna want these. You only have one set of ears."

She hastily put them in.

Zero glanced around his drums once, and them seemed to lose focus on the world. His eyes went lazy, unfocused on everything, gazing past the hardware of the drums.

Then he raised his arms and gritted his teeth.

The first note struck Raven like a bus. She clapped hands over her ears, gritted her teeth as well, and squinted at the noise. She observed in amazement as Zero's hands turned to a blur, and he continued to gaze lazily past everything in the world. To him it seemed, all that mattered was he and his drums.

His hand and his feet were moving fast enough to sound like a machine gun with different toned firings. Raven strained to track his movements.

He played and played, while his sticks took the punishment of a lifetime. One stick wasn't up to the challenge, and snapped in half. Splinters flew everywhere.

'Is it over?' she thought. 'Can I unplug my ears now?'

Surely since his stick broke, he would stop and rest…

Rule number fucking one for drummers: NEVER stop playing.

Zero continued to play single handedly as he threw the broken stick away, reached down to a bag, grabbed another, and continued to rock.

Raven began to wonder what kind of material the drumheads were made of as his other stick broke and he grabbed another.

Zero practically fought gravity and air resistance for more speed. But physics kept a firm hold on him. He began to sweat, which dripped on his drums, and he clenched his eyes shut with force, still fighting the elements for more acceleration.

She could see it; he was wearing down. But she looked at the clock on his wall

His right hand began to bleed, dribbling his stick red, and his left arm began to leak hydraulic fluid. Blood fell on his drums, mixing with sweat, and sprayed off in a mist when played on. Soon, everything within a two- meter radius was damp.

Finally he came to the finale, hitting every single piece in ultra fast succession, as blood flew off of his hands onto the walls, onto his cymbals, onto himself, and even Raven.

The last note finally came, and the sheer brute force of it shattered both his sticks and knocked over the cymbals he hit.

Panting, Zero looked around to Raven, who was white-knuckling her ears. He allowed a subtle laugh.

"Yes, its over."

"Yo, what kinda train wreck happened in there?" Cyborg's voice boomed through the door.

Zero opened the door, while Raven eased her hands off of her ears.

"Was my drum solo really that loud?"

"Hell yeah it was! We can't even hear our game over this! And the volume is all the way up!"

"I'll take that as a compliment." Zero said wiping his bloodied hands on his winter camouflage pants.

"Well, now that you're done, we need an extra dude for a game. And I ain't askin'. After that whole bit, you gonna be fourth player."

"Fine, fine. But I'm not putting up more muffling,"

"Whatever, just get your drummer-ass downstairs."

Cyborg grabbed Zero by the shirt and flung him down the hallway.

Raven noticed that Cyborg was treating Zero with a little hostility, granted less than the first day he was here, but still hostility. Cyborg did always act like a big brother to Raven, so maybe he was doing it now. She smiled slightly. "I knew he'd want to do this. Just getting to know Zero I guess."

Zero took a seat on the couch in the living room. He spotted a running Xbox and aluminum casing of a game that boasted a large blue number two on the front encircled by a broken circle in the same color. The side of the box read "Halo 2."

"Halo?" Zero said under his breath. He looked up to the giant screen T.V. Sure enough; a giant logo read "HALO 2."

"Okay Zero, make your character." Cyborg chucked him a controller. He caught it and did the best he could to not look like a buffoon.

He made his way to the profile customization screen, and made his character. All black, or "Steel" as the game suggested, and a white number zero for an emblem, he saved his profile.

"Alright," Cyborg began as he regained control of the game. "The name of the game is deathmatch. No teams, no alliances, no secret crushes or any shit like that. Just blow the shit out of each other. Easy."

Zero took a look at his controller. _14 buttons, 14 possible actions, _he thought. _Learn damn quick._

The game commenced and Zero was set somewhere inside of what looked to be a box canyon, now way in or out, with two separate outposts at opposite ends of the canyon. The cliffs of rock were so red, one might say they were covered in blood.

"Blood Gulch." Zero said.

"Yeah, they changed the name from the original to Coagulation. Kinda sucks," Beast Boy said as he attempted to dodge a rocket, failing miserably.

Zero glanced at him, confused. "Right," he mumbled.

Zero ran around with an SMG type weapon, looking for more gutsy weaponry. He found an assault rife with a scope standing up against a wall in one of the outposts, and on the other end of the building, a sniper's rifle. He picked it up and oriented himself with it.

"So Zero, got the hang of this yet?" Robin asked as he served out dual-wielded SMG power.

Before saying a word, Zero pulled the trigger, landing a 14.5mm, fin-stabilized slug in Robin's visor - from across the map.

"Yeah," He said, watching Robin's body drop. "I think I got it."

Robin stared wide-eyed at his man's corpse.

"Well to can play at this game," Cyborg said as he also picked up a sniper's rifle. But before he could even use the zoom function, let alone pull the trigger, Zero put a shell through the scope of Cyborg's rifle. Cyborg's character did a back flip as the rifle fell to the ground.

"Two can play, but only one wins." Zero reloaded his rifle.

"Well now, Zero, look behind you…" Robin said evilly.

Zero took evasive action, sidestepping to the right, throwing a grenade at his feet, and jumping off the outpost.

Before Robin knew what happened, his man went flying the opposite way, filled with shrapnel. His shields flared and dissipated, but He wasn't dead, or that is, until Zero spun around mid air with the assault rifle. Zero pulled the rigger and a three round burst tore through Robin's neck.

Robin sank down in his seat. Zero reloaded his rifle.

Zero remained silent and ran toward a group of trees. He met Beast Boy who was pinning down Cyborg with a hail of fire from the rear-gunner position of a jeep. The gun was a chaingun of massive caliber that shower the ground with spent brass. Zero delivered his rifle butt to Beast Boy's spine.

"What the-? Ohhh, dude! That's not fair!" Beast Boy yelled, bewildered as his man slumped off of the jeep to the dirt.

"Yeah well at least he got you offa me," Cyborg said, relieved. "Thanks man."

"Hold your thanks," Zero mumbled.

"Why should I- oh." Cyborg ate dirt as his non-shielded body took a three round burst to the head. "You son of a…"

"Payback time Zero!" Robin said, getting a grin on his face. He picked up a rocket launcher from a few yards away and fired. The launcher belched out a rocket that screamed toward Zero. Zero ran toward it.

"Are you insane? Dude, get outa there!" Beast Boy yelled.

Zero sidestepped at the last second and the rocket flew past. He then his crosshairs turned red on Robin and opened up. Three round bursts pelted Robin's shield as he fired another rocket. But this time, he aimed a Zero's feat, hoping to get him in the ensuing explosion.

"Crap!" Zero barked. He jumped as the rocket detonated, but the blast was enough to overload his shielding. He was wide open.

"Reload faster, reload faster…" Robin repeated, hastily back pedaling away from the airborne Zero, but he didn't get far enough. Zero came down on Robin's head with a punishing blow with his rifle. His shields low, Robin finally reloaded and looked up. Zero was in his face.

"Damn, I can't fire!" Robin furiously tried to shake Zero who was at point black range. Should Robin fire, they would both die.

But this was not the case for Zero. He had no explosive weapons. Zero raised his rifle to Robins orange visor and pulled the trigger. Blood, brains, and bits of both armor and bone sprayed the rock Robin had backed himself into. The rocket launcher fell from Robin's hands, and Robin's man slammed into the rocked then fell forward onto the floor.

Zero reloaded his rifle.

"Okay," Beast Boy started. "Now that we know that Zero is the king of Halo, what do we wanna do now?"

Everyone remained silent until Starfire spoke up. "Why do we not just commence in the action of 'hanging-out'?"

"Too late, Star," Robin said gloomily.

"Well, we can't sit here and do nothin' all day," Cyborg said. "I'd go insane!"

"Well, let's ask the newb. Whad do you wanna do, Zero?" Beast Boy said.

Zero looked at them, and they stared back at him, as if he was supposed to be delivering a life altering speech. "I don't know," he said. "I'm good at shooting the crap out of stuff. What on your list things to do involves shooting the crap out of stuff?"

Suddenly, an alarm began to blare throughout the tower.

"We've got trouble!" Robin said, leaping up to a keypad next to the T.V. "It looks like your going to get your chance to do just that, Zero."

"Way ahead of you," Zero was already up off the couch, Desert eagle in his right hand. With his left, he cocked it, and his left eye lit up with blue, and he smirked grimly. "I love my job."

Well, it's been a long time since you guys have seen my ass around here, huh? Well, spring break came, and now I can stay up till four writing. enjoy


	8. What the hell was that?

Been a while, hasn't it? I actually have another chapter lined up, but I wan't to see what you guys think first. All 14 of my reviews say I'm doing good so far, and actually my fan base has grown from 1 to 2, so I must be doing something right. Awesome.

**Chapter 8: **

**What the hell was that?**

Everyone rushed down to the bottom of the tower to enter various vehicles and prep for the "trouble," which Zero was already prepared for. He had already slammed a clip in and readied his sidearm and checked the levels and gauges of his mechanical self.

He checked his left arm, and the cells were up to par and all modes of operation were ready to be used. He was getting bored waiting for everyone, so he ran through the modes.

_Magnetic Accelerator Cannon?_ He thought._ Yep. Do I have enough depleted uranium? Yup, enough for ten 40mm shells. How about the Magnetic Accelerator Minigun? Yeah, it worked. _He made the barrels wirr around a bit. He loved doing that, but he remembered what he was here for and stopped hastily_. Enough depleted uranium for that? Yeah. In fact enough for roughly 5,000 rounds. _

He never thought there the hell all this uranium went when he put it in his arm. Could be in his foot for all he knew. Maybe his stomach, or his spleen maybe. The doc always was a weird type, and didn't really say much about the storage, except for his leg, which held a med-kit and a few tools for repairs. Were they in his leg now? Yep.

"God DAMNIT they are taking a long-- shit they're gone…"

The door was open, and fresh rubber was on the floor. Raven stood at the door looking at him funny.

"You take way too long, Zero," she said.

She levitated a few feet off the ground and began to fly away.

"I'll show you slow…" He gritted his teeth, and began to walk, then jog, then run. He was at the door when he stopped and looked up; there was the tower. ""Fun time." He jumped, and bolted straight up the side of the tower. He waited for the apex of the jump, then planting both feet on the tower, and with a great effort, rocketed himself across the harbor. He passed Raven up with ease. She looked up, mouthed something that looked like surprise and then sped up. He killed the notion to smile.

When he met land, he had lost substantial altitude, so he engaged the special shielding in his boot and left foot. They were prototypes from some project called Spartan II he had heard of. They were SUPPOSED to stop bullets and various other projectiles, but, if used correctly (or incorrectly, depending on the point of view), these would eliminate friction between the user's feet and the ground. So, without stopping, he hit the street and streaked through the city. Traffic was a problem, but him arm took care of it. The cars were easily pushed out of the way, punched through, or otherwise taken out.

He spotted Starfire up above, so he fallowed her to the scene of the crime, or whatever the "trouble" was. She stopped suddenly in one sector, which took Zero by surprise. He disengaged the footwear and dug his left hand into the ground. The slide took a few yards, and certainly someone was going to be pissed about the tarmac, but he came to a stop grinding halt

Robin came roaring down the street on his tuner bike, and Cyborg's custom street machine came in a close second. Cyborg and Beast Boy jumped out the car, and Raven simply melted up from the street from a shadow. She looked beaten, like they were competing or something.

"Nice jump, Zero," she said.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye.

She gave a look at him, then the ground began to rumble, so he was unable to define the look as anything. He wondered if she was getting pissed from losing a competition he didn't know about, or what. But as he looked closer, she was startled too. Was this an earthquake?

"No…" Zero mumbled as he slowly drew his gun.

To his right, the street exploded, revealing a giant mechanical… something… with a rider on the back. The man on the back of what seemed to be a giant dog-type robot had jet black hair, black marks on his arms, sunken in eyes, black pants, black tank top, black pants; typical street punk.

"Rancid!" Robin yelled.

"Well, well, Bird Boy! Time for me to introduce my new hound, Rex V!" Rancid bellowed.

"What the crap is this?" Zero said. Raven looked at him funny. Everyone else was poised for battle, and he was slacking off.

Or maybe not…

Rancid laughed. "Shall I walk you through the new features over Rex IV? No! I think I start taking you-"

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Three bullets hammered Rancid's head. One in the cheekbone, cracking the skull. Another plowed through the eye, deflating it and opening up the opposite end of Rancid's head. The last was right between the eyes; the perfect shot. His head exploded send what little brains he had everywhere.

There was a long silence in the time it took for the body to drop and the shell casing to ping the ground. In this time, Zero grinned demonically. His left eye faded away again.

Rancid collapsed on his dog, and blood pooled by his neck without a head. The three shells hit concrete and made the silence break, which signaled everyone to look back at Zero; his Desert Eagle raised, the barrel smoking a bit, and his eyes glued to his target. He looked down to his ammo belt, took out a new clip, let the old one slide out of his D. Eagle and slammed the new one home. Before the old one hit the floor, he caught it and put it in the empty spot.

Still no one said anything, just stared at their new addition to their team. But they all hit the floor when he armed his MAC.

The arm formed the three pronged magnetic slingshot as a depleted uranium shell slid into the chamber. The round began to spin, ensuring accuracy, and then it shot through the magnets and tore the air as it headed for the Dog, known as "Rex V." Exhaust spewed from the rear of his arm from the immense heat, and the mechanical dog was gone; obliterated from the shell.

Bits and pieces of scrap metal began to fall in the street as the Titans looked up.

"So, uhh… are we done here?" Zero said as his armed shaped from a gun to an arm.

Everyone one was stunned. They weren't used to this. And what people don't know, they fear, and that fear turns to hate, and Zero saw this in each of their eyes.

"Zero," Raven said emerging from a wall. "What the hell was that?"

"Yeah, that was not standard procedure by any means," Robin said, standing up.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Beast boy asked, growing back to original size.

"I was just neutralizing the threat—" Zero tried to explain.

"You were just screwing up everything!" Cyborg yelled.

"Fuck this," he mumbled. Zero turned and started down the street.

If he couldn't explain himself, leave it. Run it over in his head and if nothing is wrong, that leave it.

So he ran it over in his head. They were pissed, but he did nothing wrong in his book. He didn't understand a god damned thing yet. What was wrong with his tactics?

"Jesus I hate my job," He said, as he walked.


	9. About Fing Time

Chapter 9: Love finally roots itself 

Zero took a long way home. Was it really home? He guessed as much. Where else was he to stay?

"Damn it, being a merc sucks sometimes." He walked alone down the street. Really he didn't know what he was getting pissed about. Certainly wondering about his "home" wasn't going to solve anything. What he was trying to get at in his head was the whole reason why they went postal when he blew that "Rancid" fuckhead away. The classic "three slugs to the head," was "standard," to him, but evidently not to Robin. He would have to learn what "standard" was.

Or, being a mercenary, he could just leave. Screw "operating procedure."

Yes, but then he would be leaving something behind… what was it?

Who cares? Life on the road worked, right? Who needs them? Mercenaries can do whatever, whenever. He liked that idea.

But he would leave it behind, but what? Home, a sense of security… the kitchen, a sense of supply, and her…

"Jesus Christ, fuck it all!" He planted his fist in a nearby wall, and not his mechanical one. Blood began to flow out of his broken knuckles.

"God fucking damn it." He pulled his hand away and suppressed the pain that numbed his arm. There was a hole where there had once been wall.

He popped a hatch on his left leg and out came a field medical kit. He cleaned the open wounds, repositioned out-of-place knuckles, and wrapped it up. He deposited the kit in the hatch and shut it.

His wandering led him to a little restaurant. A short, round man was working register. Business was nonexistent, until Zero stepped closer.

"Well there fella, what can I do for ya? Maybe a burger and a drink?" the man said.

"Uhh, sure." Zero asn't thinking clearly yet. His thoughts were still clouded, and he was failing miserably to suppress this anger which seemed to manifest itself at nothing.

"I haven't seen you before. What brings you to this part of town?"

"I don't even think I know the answer to that. Sorry." Zero wasn't looking at the man, rather at his hand rapped in bandage. Damn that wall hurt. "Yeah, couldn't say."

"Ahh, no sweat, stranger." The man flipped the burger on the grill. "I serve a lot of people that I've never seen before. But it looks like you got some company there." The man gestured to behind Zero.

"What do want, Raven?" Zero grunted.

"Now that's no way to talk to the lady," the man said disapprovingly. "Try again."

Zero knew he was right. He turned to face her. "Sorry," he said looking at his hand, then back to her. He didn't know what to say, so he offered, "Burger and a drink?"

"That's more like it fella." The man said behind him.

She was silent for a second, observing him. Then finally she said, "You gave us a scare back there. Random gunshots usually aren't good thins, and really, we're not used to a problem being fixed like that."

"Well, well to the mercenary's mind. Shoot first, collect payment, leave. Questions are out."

"Well, for future reference, don't kill the target."

"Kneecap shots it is then." Zero said

She shot a look at him, but not one of hostility. One of, "You know what I mean, don't be a smartass." Zero got the message. He changed the subject post-haste.

"So, how pissed are they?"

"Robin's pissed you blew the guy's head off, because he can't bring a dead body to justice," she started. "Cyborg's pissed, because he's Cyborg. He'll be like that sometimes. And beast boy is just surprised. You scared him the most; you gun was right over his head."

"Really? Must've felt the muzzle blast at that range. Tell him I'm sorry." Zero looked at his hand again.

"Why not tell him yourself?" she said. Then the realization struck her and the blow destabilized her emotions and a lightbulb blew out.

"That's odd. That's never happened before. Ah, well." The man behind the counter was bewildered, but resumed food preparation.

Zero noticed what happened. He then remember his thoughts from before. That's what he'd be leaving behind. Or rather who: Raven.

It was then they made eye contact. And it was then he got the strongest message from her eyes. They said, "Don't leave me." And he leaned close to her and said without hearing himself that he would stay. And it was then, for the first time, he saw her truly smile. And it was then for the first time they kissed each other.

And it was then that the man behind the counter that he would not tell a soul. He said, "What happens here, stays here, friends." He smiled at both of them. Raven blushed and Zero stared at his hands on the table.

When they left, Zero flew with Raven back to the tower. In mid-flight, Raven grabbed his right hand. They both felt the warmness of each other, and they flew together side by side.

It was then Zero decided to stay with her, forever.


	10. Let's try this again

**probably riddled with mistakes... **

**Chapter 10:**

**Let's try this again…**

That night, after Zero had re-patched his broken knuckles ("Raven, I said I've died twice, not that I'm immortal.") and gotten to bed, Raven stayed awake in her room. She shouldn't try it again, but she was thinking seriously about it.

She almost blew that side of town to hell when Zero said he would stay. She just wanted to do it again. But would involve a weapon of some sort pointed at her head?

"Damnit." She lay in bed staring at the ceiling, then out the window. And after that she went back to the ceiling. She tried not to look at Zero's wall. It might not be there if she did; she might blow it away.

"DAMNIT." She punched the bed.

Raven stood up and paced around. She wanted to, but what would the consequence be? Would she end up loosing it, or would it end up like last time, or could something great happen?

She tried to think about earlier in the day for some help.

"Damnit! Zero, how the fuck do you do that?"

"I go by the saying a good friend once told me."

"Hey dude, have you ever the one about the ex-mercenary and the rocket?"

"Have you heard the one about the green kid and the 14.5mm bullet?"

"Uhh… no I haven't- DAMN YOU!"

Another game of Halo, and Zero was destroying the guys. Raven sat in the corner and pretended o read a book and drink tea. She kept looking up at Zero then the screen. She would shake her head each time the score revealed that Zero had more points than all of the other guys' points combined, times two. She would then sip her tea and go back to pretending.

The guys got tired being raped at Halo, so they tried something called Rainbow Six. That was worse than Halo because it was more realistic, so they stopped playing all together. For about 5 minutes anyway, then it was back to Zero's complete domination of the scoreboard.

"So Zero, what was that saying you had by your friend or something- crap…" Robin's body dropped. Another point.

"Yeah, what were you sayin' about-GOD DAMNIT!" Cyborg dropped. Another point. But Beast Boy got intelligent, though this seems impossible. He pinned Zero down with a high caliber heavy machine gun turret.

"The saying actually came from a show, then my friend picked it up. It goes on – shit-" Bullets hailed down from the top of a base. Beast Boy grinned menacingly. "Anyway, it was something like this. 'Nothing happens if you don't swing the bat.'"

Everyone was silent for a moment, but resumed game play. It seemed only Raven understood what Zero said. But he demonstrated it. Instead of hiding behind his cover for something else to kill him, Zero ran from behind his rock and heaved a plasma grenade straight toward the turret emplacement. A little of to the right but it did the trick. Beast Boy saw it coming, and thought he was being a good strategist to run to his left. He caught the grenade in the teeth and the fuse ran down.

Another point.

Raven stood there in her room remembering what Zero had said. "Fuck it," she said. "Let's try this again."

She crept in Zero's room and sat on his bed softly. She did not wake him, so she was in the green so far, until she reached to stoke his hair again.

He twitched, and she gasped and pulled back.

He relaxed again, mumbled and fell back asleep.

She did not gasp because she thought she was getting the "What weapon at my head tonight?" feeling. What she got from his thoughts was catastrophic.

It was a matrix still of a beach on a dark hazy day. Zero was three steps of what looked to be a boat, but with a door at the front, when she saw the damage. He wasn't the scarred, half mechanical Zero she new, but a younger, softer looking Zero.

But that wasn't the shocking part. It was that blood was spurting from his chest and he was screaming. His rifle was falling to the ground and the men behind him in awe of his wound. This was most of Raven's dismay. The rest of the beach was almost as bad. Men were running and dying; one was walking in circle trying to find the arm that had been shot off. One was lying on the floor holding his intestines in. Another was in the fetal position and crying behind a large metal barrier until a bullet made the front of his face blow off. Raven was not just an observer. She was being sprayed with blood and the guts of men, but all in super slow motion.

Then everything became still, and a voice came to her. "This is how it feels the first time you die. You scream, you fall, you bleed. You SUFFER!"

And that was when she pulled away. It was Zero's voice at first, but it became more demonic as the voice went on. More demonic than her father himself.

She stood there and felt such sorrow and misery and exhaustion she staggered backward, clutching her head. She made her way back to his bed and lay on the side next to him. She lay there in cold sweat until an arm fell over her. Zero had rolled over and he grabbed her around the stomach. Not violent and not loving, but more of an accident. It was enough though. She calmed almost instantly, closed her eyes, rolled over, planted her head in his chest, and fell to sleep.

But while they slept, a gateway was opened from mind to mind. Raven and Zero opened a pathway to each other's head without being conscious enough to realize it. They slept peacefully as their minds worked.

Somewhere along the pathway, Raven walked along, and entered Zero's mind, and felt the presence of not only Zero, but something pure and holy, and another demonic and sinister. Something was brewing on the other side of the door she had come to.


	11. negative one

CHAPTER 11: NEGATIVE ONE 

"What the hell? Two more doors?"

Raven stopped in her tracks. The first door was weird enough as it was. It was labeled with a number Zero, pretty expected due to his name, but now she stood in an entryway with two more doors. On labeled with a number one and the other with a negative one. The other strange thing was the song blaring in this entryway. It sang, "Breathing each other's lives, holding this in mind, that if we fall, we all fall, and we fall alone."

Raven, partly because she was curious and partly because she was holding her ears the music was so loud, decided to take the door with the negative one on it. She reached for the handle to open it and sprang back when she touched it.

"Blazing hot, blazing hot, ouch, ouch," she muttered. Now being more careful, she used her mind to open the door. It creaked open an inch and then exploded off of the hinges, sucking her inside of what seemed to be a hellhole. Fire and brimstone was the scene she saw, demonic aura is what she felt. All around her was a sense of evil, and it drove her mind insane trying to fend it off from taking her over. She passed out from stress, fell from the air, and fell to the bottom of the room.

When she awoke she was in a cave, steaming with heat and seething with rage and fury. Raven was speechless, and now, instead of a sort of neutral song blaring over her ears, it was evil and sang, "If you're five-five-five, then I'm six-six-six,"

She staggered to her feet and moved down the cave. Trying to maintain consciousness, and also her sanity, she thought of the Zero she knew. He was the only thing holding her up right now. But he would fade when see saw what came upon.

A large cage at the end of the cave, and in it sat a demon. The heat was radiating from this demon so intensely the bars on the cage were red hot; it's a wonder this demon captive hadn't escaped. She surveyed him a while, and realized he knew she was there.

"Who are you?" she asked holding her arm over her face. No answer came from the demon. He sat and stared with eyes without pupils. They glowed white, and flames would rise from them occasionally.

She came close and noticed he had scars over each of his eyes, his arm engineered from what looked to be old war machinery, his other was very scarred, stitched, and surprisingly muscular. He had a bone-like shroud jutting up from his chest covering his mouth. Two horns, each about six inches long stuck out of his forehead, and above his head was a ball of fire. His torso was attached to two robotic legs, each nothing like the other because of ragtag construction, but where the mechanics met flesh, he bled. He bled from his eyes, from the horns in his forehead, from the shroud in front of his face; "It's a wonder you haven't died from blood loss," Raven muttered to herself.

The demon stood slowly, and holding out his arm, he grabbed a hold of her with some sort of telekinesis and drug her over to the cage.

"What the-?" Raven gasped as an invisible hand wrapped around her neck and forced her over to him. She tried to scream, or even use her mind to fend his off, but the evil power of his was destroying her own. She struggled to get free, but failed miserably. He pressed her up against the searing hot bars with his mind, but his eyes never left her as she screamed in pain. Her suit was burned off in a bar pattern across her body, exposing her skin to the blistering heat. When she tried to push away, she burned her hands severely on the bars. Her cheek was forced onto the cage, burning her face. She couldn't get away from the cage with all of her might.

"STOP PLEASE!" She screamed at the demon for mercy, but to no avail. She opened her eyes through the searing pain of having red hot metal pressed into her only to see a number zero on the shroud written in blood overlaying a carved-in pentogram.

"ZERO, STOP!" she yelled.

She dropped to the floor clutching her body in pain. Soaked in blood, she looked up. He stood looking at her on the floor. One eye had become the ice-cold blue eye of Zero's.

"You are Zero, aren't you?" she asked through gritted teeth. He stared at her with menace and fury. She was, for the first time, afraid of Zero. Afraid of what he might do, afraid. She tried to reach into his mind, and all she got was evil. As soon as she was in his mind, a pentogram burned into her forehead. She writhed in pain on the ground.

Raven got this from Zero. "YOU WILL FEEL WHAT IT IS LIKE TO DIE. I WILL SHOW YOU. I WILL SHOW YOU PAIN, SUFFERING, AND THE ONLY RELIEF YOU WILL EVER GET IS DEATH."

Zero lifted a metal finger to the cage door. Not wanting to experience such pain again, Raven opened the door obediently with her mind. Raven lowered her head as the door opend and began to cry. Her powers were not unleashed, as Zero had now deprived her of any power at all. Tears fell from her eyes to the dirt, and she looked up to see her last image: Zero's blue eye was back to flaming white, and he had grabbed her face and lifted her to the ceiling. With his free hand, he took out what looked to be Zero's Desert Eagle, and shoved it down her throat. She shut her eyes tight, and hot tears streamed down Raven's face into her burns as she prepared for the only one she loved to kill her. She could not move, she could not escape, she could only cry.

And she cried as Zero pulled the trigger.


	12. positive one

CHAPTER 12: POSITIVE ONE 

Raven awoke back in front of the two doors labeled with positive and negative one. She quickly became coherent to the fact that she had not had a hole blown in her head, and also the fact that half of her suit was missing now. She groaned, stood, and covered herself with her cape.

Raven felt no injury from the last ordeal, but still had the images of Zero about to kill her in her mind. Those she tried to shove to the bck of her head and bring back the good Zero, or at least the Zero she thought she was good. That last incident brought up questions.

"Fuck it." She looked toward the other door. She hoped this would be a better experience and she opened it. The handle was not blazing hot, nor did the door rip off its mountings and suck her into an abyss. It just opened to a white cloud with a blue sky and a cool breeze.

"What the-?" she said as she walked in. This place looked like what heaven was supposed to be. But she new it was not, for she looked down and saw the city below, and she also saw what looked to be an angel sitting in the distance. She came closer to get a better look; it sat chained to a bench made of marble with two powerful wings coming out of its back. She noticed it had a striking resemblance to Zero by it's bodily features, only it had no scars or robotic body parts. He did have a black 0 tattooed on it's right arm, black gloves, and wore urban black-white-gray camouflage pants.

She couldn't believe it. He went from a demon to an angel. "Z- Zero? Is that you?" she asked as she came forward. He turned his head toward her. His eyes were deep blue, and glowed with a white light, even though what was supposed to be white in a normal eye was black. It was odd to look at, but the stare he gave her was one of love and caring. He stood slowly up and tried to walk over to her, but his chains caught and he stopped.

"It can't be you… you just tried to kill me," she said, her eyes starting to water as those thoughts came back. But it seemed her mind was still drained from that episode, so she stumbled over to him. His eyes widened with worry and sadness as she looked into them. She stumbled into his arms and began to cry again. He embraced her, and she let go in his chest. She lost all control of her emotions and just cried. Tears fell past their feet to the street down below.

"Raven," he said through a sort of telepathy. "Raven, there is no need to be sad. I am here."

She was crying on behalf of that, and on behalf of the fact that she had set that demon free from its cage, but this angel heard this in her thoughts and closed his eyes.

"Raven you must set me free now," he said. "I must stop this evil that has been set loose."

She tried gathering herself but then heard something in his chest: his heartbeat. For some reason this calmed her enough to let her powers regenerate to break the chains from this new Zero. She never let her head out of his chest. She stayed and listened to his heart as he held her in his arms.

She began to think of the Zero she used to know, sort of sarcastic and harsh, but still caring on the inside. These two extremes of good and evil she had just met made something deathly clear to her: "Evil was negative one and good was positive one. They add to make Zero. And if one gets out of control, the other must counteract it. But now she had set them both free; and she was afraid of what might happen.

She tried not to think too much, it hurt her head, so instead she fell asleep in this angel's arms and woke up staring into the real Zero's eyes.

"GAHH!" she yelled as she came to. It was morning and Zero was staring at her from about three inches away.

"Well, miss, any particular reason I wake up to find you in my bed with me in it?" he asked.

"Don't. Do. That. Again. EVER."

"You're entertaining when you sleep. It's fun to watch."

"Why are you watching me sleep?" She asked harshly.

"Hey, give me some slack here. You have a perfectly good bed in the next room, but choose to sleep in mine while I'm in it."

They sat in silence as Raven blushed a slight bit. That slight bit ignited the powder in a .50 caliber round sending the bullet downrange and the shell casing toward the bed. Zero caught it in his hand and scowled. "You really need to stop doing that."

Raven blushed again, sending a volley of .50 caliber bullets downrange and the casing into Zero's hand. He suppressed the laughter, but Raven read his mind. He was busting up on the inside.

He sat and looked into her eyes holding 4 shells casings in his hand. "Loveable yet dangerous." He kissed her on the forehead and got up to get a drink out of his mini-refrigerator. Another five bullets went off and he caught all the casings with his free hand. Now he just couldn't resist; he buckled over with laughter dropping the shell casings on the floor.

"Shut up," Raven said, holding back a smile.

Kind of short, but I didn't kill her off, and that's what matters. Sorry it took me so long, my life has been pretty shitty the past few months. I got a girlfriend who really didn't even like me in the first place, so she dumped me for another guy (who ended up rejecting her back; I got a little humor out of that) and for a solid two months I was totally into her, my first girl in 4 years, and she just destroyed my life.

But now I see that whatever bullshit is thrown at me, I stick by my favorite saying: "Stop your bitching and fight your way through it." It has got me through some rough times. But now I'm back bitches, and ready to rock.


End file.
